Behind the Madness
by xshattered-reflectionx
Summary: When the lights on the globe start going out in London, the Guardians know that something must be very wrong indeed. What they find is something horrible. Something they can't change on their own. So with some unexpected allies, they attempt to help the one human who may just be able to stop the lights from going out. But this girl has some tricks of her own...
1. Prologue

**Hello! So this is the first crossover story I've ever taken seriously so I'm working really hard on this. I really hope everyone likes it! I'd like to thank my friend and beta-reader Scorpiofreak. She has been such an inspiration and given me lots of good advice! Please go and read her story Winter Wonderland! It's amazing! **

~ September 1875 ~

Today was not a good day.

The day started off normal enough. North had already started his Christmas preparations. Afterall, it was never too early to start preparing for the best holiday of the year. Even if a certain irate Easter Bunny strongly disagreed.

The Russian spirit was in his office. A nice cosy fire was burning in the fireplace, giving a nice, warm glow to the room. The lights on the Christmas tree were twinkling (always his favourite part) and the light bounced off of the many ice sculptures that were positioned carefully around the room.

As North chiselled on the final touches to a small ice sculpture of a little wind-up train with his carving pick and tiny hammer, his most trusted yeti barged into the room without warning. The loud bang of the door slamming open shocked North into dropping his precious ice train, causing it to shatter into tiny pieces. Thankfully the other sculptures merely wobbled slightly before settling back down. The spirit's eyes hardened and his face went red in anger as he began cursing in Russian. He turned sharply towards the yeti.

"Phil! What is meaning of this?!"

The yeti garbled away in it's own little language. To any normal person it would sound like a mixture of complete gibberish and silly made up words that made no sense whatsoever, but North had been around the yetis long enough to understand their strange language.

As Phil spoke, the Christmas spirit squinted his eyes and became less concerned about his sculptures, focusing on what the yeti was really saying. From what he could understand from the panicked and garbled mess of a language that Phil was screaming out at him frantically, there was some kind of problem with the Globe. The giant one that displayed billions of tiny lights all over it. These brightly glowing lights were incredibly important, for each one represented a child that believed in him. The lights represented all of the children that believed in the Guardians. If there was a problem with it, then it must be fixed as soon as possible. Christmas would be fast approaching, and there was no telling when danger might strike. And it was with these thoughts in mind, that North stopped the yeti from speaking and then walked briskly out of his office, Phil following urgently behind him.

As the spirit made his way through the busy workshop, he managed to catch a glimpse at what was going on around him. The tiny elves were once again getting themselves stuck in the Christmas decorations as they "pretended to help". Some were just eating the many cookies...North had wondered what had happened to the batch he had ordered directly from the kitchen. With the mystery now solved he began to distract himself with the rest of the goings on.

Hundreds of yetis were seated at benches, checking some of his ice sculptures and making last minute details to toys that had been so lovingly handcrafted. North would've done the job himself if he actually had any free time. He didn't know what that was like anymore. He watched as the toys would then be handed onto other yetis who would begin to paint and stitch any final details so that they would be finished in time for Christmas.

The Christmas spirit smiled slightly as he remembered the excitement that went into making Christmas and all of the gifts. He nodded in approval at the work his loyal yetis were doing. He could always count on them to do a good job. They never let him down. Just as the thought left his head, he spotted a flaw. Scrunching his bushy eyebrows and almost stomping over to the offending yeti he began to explain, yet again, what he wanted this particular toy to look like.

"No, no, no! How many times? The trains are meant to be yellow and green! The engine should be green! Yellow carriages! How hard is this to remember?!"

North didn't like yelling. He hated it. But sometimes it was necessary in order to get the job done. So as the poor yeti grumbled an apology and began to repaint the blue trains, he decided to let the subject drop. The yeti got the point. The trains would be fixed. Everything would be okay. No more yelling. Problem solved.

Phil garbled at him again, reminding him of the important matter at hand. North raised a huge hand to his face as he sighed. How could he have been distracted so easily by such a trivial distraction? North gestured for the yeti to lead the way as they once again set off to discover the problem behind the globe.

As North approached the giant globe, he inspected it carefully. Hundreds of years of making and creating intricate toys for billions of children gave him an incredible eye for detail. Out of all of the Guardians, he would probably be the first to spot something amiss. However from what he could see, there was nothing wrong. The controls and inner mechanics that kept it ticking still seemed to be working. The billions of tiny lights that covered its surface were still there, glowing brightly. And yet, he had a feeling that Phil was right. Something definitely wasn't right. He could feel it in his belly. And it had never been wrong before.

"What is wrong Phil?" he asked in a more gentle tone. Perhaps now the problem would become clearer. Phil walked over to a lever and pulled it. The globe began to turn slowly until Phil suddenly let go of the lever, allowing it to come to a stop. Once he was certain that the globe had come to a full stop, North opened up the metal box that was connected to the side of the control panel. Inside was hundreds of cogs and springs, all in different shapes and sizes. Once he had made certain that it was not an inside problem and all of the necessary tweaks had been made, North reattached the cover and followed Phil to find out whatever was wrong.

The anxious yeti had climbed up the rungs of a ladder that led to one of the balconies that were used when inspecting the globe from above. The Christmas spirit climbed the ladder to get a better look. And what he did find, he wasn't expecting. North looked at the area surrounding the point that Phil pointed at. Those areas were normal, brightly shining with the belief of the children. His eyes moved back towards the offending spot on the globe. He watched as three dimly glowing orbs all went out at the same time. On closer inspection, he noticed that they were all in the exact same place.

North narrowed his eyes as he inspected the small country. Why was it just one area that had children who were losing their faith? Why was the rest of the children in this country strong in their belief, when the ones in this area weren't? What made these children so unhappy that they were losing all hope in the world?

"What is going on in London?"

**So that's the prologue. I hope you all enjoyed reading it, and please feel free to leave a review ^^**

**xshattered-reflectionx**


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Rise Of The Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns.**

**I would also like to thank my beta-reader Scorpiofreak. She has the patience of a saint putting up with me xD**

Sandy often visited Santoff Claussen. He wouldn't go all the time, and the trips weren't exactly regular. But sometimes, when Sandy finished spreading good dreams to all the sleeping children in the world, he would find himself with some extra time on his hands. Half of the time he would go home to The Island of the Sleepy Sands and do what he did best: sleep. The rest of the time he would find himself at North's home.

Sandy didn't want to bother any of the other guardians just because he was a little bored, but the Christmas spirit always welcomed him with open arms. That was the good thing about North. He always went out of his way to make Sandy feel at home. After being friends for a certain number of years, the two spirits had created a sort of contract. When Christmas would come around, Sandy would go around the world and ensure that all of the children were most definitely asleep, and maybe give them a few more dreams to dream, while North delivered the presents. Using this system would guarantee that none of the children would wake until morning, when they could open the presents that they had dreamed about with glee. Because of the extra help that Sandy provided on Christmas Eve, North made it a known fact that the little dream maker was welcome at Santoff Claussen any time.

This particular night, Sandy was in Scotland. A set of triplets had been tormenting their poor mother, who was trying so hard to cope and was now at her wits end.

Sandy had just managed to send said triplets off to sleep to dream about sailing on the ocean and having a fantastic adventure (they all wanted to be pirates and roam the sea when they were older), and the maker of dreams couldn't help but feel just a little tired. He did this job every night, but even Sandy had to sleep sometimes.

Doing all this work had earned him some spiced cider made by North's yetis. It was with this yummy thought in his head, that Sandy created an airplane out of his dream sand and strapped on some little goggles to protect his eyes from the wind. He didn't really need them, but it made the whole experience so much more fun.

He laughed silently as the airplane started up and whizzed off into the night sky. The maker of dreams relaxed a little as he steered towards the North Pole and looked out over the horizon. Dreamsand practically filled the sky, creating wonderful dreams about fairies and animals and swimming under water.

Luckily for him, Sandy's handmade air plane was fast enough to fly across the world and to Santoff Claussen before dawn even broke. The airplane quickly turned back into sand as Sandy floated up and then down through the roof of the main building and landed in the middle of the workshop, like he always did.

However something was off. Yetis ran everywhere in every direction, shouting all kinds of garbled nonsense. Sandy's relaxed smile quickly turned into a frown when he saw the mess. Usually he would've tried to understand what was going on, but the noise of the yetis' panicked shouts was too much to bear. He couldn't understand. There were too many voices. He had to find North, he would know what to do.

There didn't seem to be any problems from what Sandy could see. All of the tools and machines that were used to make the toys for Christmas all seemed to be working and accounted for. The toys that flew and whizzed around the workshop were still flying and whizzing. That was normal. No windows were broken. Perhaps something was stolen from North's private office? It was possible.

The Sandman was just about to go and check North's office when he suddenly thought of something: the globe. Something could be wrong with the globe. Sandy didn't know why he suddenly thought of that, and he couldn't quite explain the horrible feeling of dread that he was getting in his stomach. He knew that feeling. He'd had it before, and the end result was never good.

Even so, Sandy was a guardian. His job as a guardian was to make sure that the children of the world were protected. And if there was a potential threat, then it was part of his job to stop it. So with the feeling of dread increasing with each footstep, Sandy headed towards the room which held the globe.

He didn't expect to find what he did.

The globe had stopped spinning. Whether it had been done on purpose, or completely on accident, he couldn't really tell. The lights on the globe were still there. Except for one tiny little island in Europe.

England.

Sandy heard a voice yelling then. The Russian accent immediately told him that it was North, so he floated up to the balcony where he could hear the voice coming from. As he expected, North was pacing back and forth yelling in Russian. Judging by the tone of voice that the Christmas spirit was using, there was a good reason for him to be panicked.

The dream maker then realised that North had not yet noticed his arrival. With extreme caution, Sandy floated towards North and gently tapped him on the shoulder. The effect was immediate.

North stopped what he was doing, and very slowly turned around to face his friend. Sandy greeted him with a slight wave and a small nervous smile, allowing the smile to develop into a concerned frown when North didn't return the greeting with his own.

As the silence between the two friends continued, Sandy decided to bring up the cause of the disruption of the workshop. He created a question mark above his head out of his dreamsand and slowly gestured around. North understood what he was asking then, and his expression darkened.

The Christmas spirit pointed towards the globe and simply said one thing.

"The lights in London. Something is causing them to go out."

Sandy furrowed his brow and turned towards the globe once more. Floating up into the air, he got as close as he could to see. He didn't doubt his friend. He had seen when he floated in that the small island seemed dimmer than usual, which was very strange considering he had just come from there.

The dream maker tapped the globe a few times in the place where lights should have been shining brightly. He had only been to England, Scotland and Wales that night! Surely something couldn't have happened that quickly...right?

But no matter how hard he tapped, and no matter how hard he ignored North's protests about banging his fist on the globe, the island stayed in almost complete darkness. There were plenty of lights left in Scotland and Wales, but in England there were no more than five lights. And as Sanderson watched in horror, three more lights blinked out of existence.

Once the lights had finally faded, North turned to Sandy. The older guardian blinked slowly, the shock still evident on his face, but Sandy's eyes said to North that they had to put this right somehow. So North walked away from the globe and to a handle built into a different control panel.

North turned the handle to the side and then pushed it down. The giant globe immediately lit up with a beautiful greenish glow, that made its way up the globe and launched into the sky. The sky lit up with the green and pink glow that seemed to move on it's own.

The two guardians then sat down and waited. The other guardians had been summoned. Once they saw the lights in the sky, they would come to Santoff Claussen. All they had to do was wait.

**And that's the end of the first official chapter of Behind The Madness. I hope you liked it ^^**


	3. Chapter 2

**I'd like to thank Scorpiofreak for being my beta reader and for being oh so patient with me xD**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Rise Of The Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns**

North and Sandy didn't have to wait long. Within five minutes, Bunny had entered the domain through his tunnels and quickly made it inside, brushing the white powdery snow off his shoulders. Once the white powder had been brushed from his fur, he began to scowl and his shoulders tightened up in frustration. He never did like the cold. Why couldn't they ever meet at one of the other domains? Why did it have to be the coldest place on Earth?

As usual, the Easter Bunny was grumpy. He had been disturbed from his sleep, after all, but after the ranting grew too much for Sandy, the small spirit gripped the fur on the pooka's chest tightly and angrily pointed at the globe that was causing so much panic. Once he saw the problem, Bunny quickly quieted down and his ears drooped.

Another two minutes later, Toothiana entered through one of the windows, followed by a small following of five of her miniature fairies that buzzed around her like bees around a hive. She continued to direct them for another minute before flying further into the room where everyone had gathered around the globe.

The two guardians, who had only recently arrived, looked towards the other two for an explanation. However, with all of the yetis and elves panicking, running around and shouting, only so much of the story COULD be heard. North yelled at the top of his voice for the workers to leave, and WHEN the noise had quietened down to a much more bearable level, Bunny asked the question that had been on all of their minds

"Alright mates, what's goin' on? Why are the lights in England goin' out?"

At that last question, Tooth looked towards Bunny, eyes wide from shock. "The lights in England are going out? But my fairies were just over there! They would have told me if something was wrong!" The fairy insisted. She refused to accept that anything was wrong. Surely her fairies wouldn't miss something as important as children no longer believing?

Just to be sure, the hyperactive Tooth Fairy hovered up to the globe to inspect. Bunny couldn't be right about what their friends had called them there for, but when she inspected the globe, Tooth was dismayed to find that Bunny had been right about the lights. This really was an emergency! How could her fairies miss something like this?! No, this wasn't their fault. They were just picking up the teeth from the children, like they had been told to do. They'd just been so busy lately. She didn't know whether to be upset at the situation, or be incredibly angry at how blind she had been. At least now she knew why her fairies always seemed to take longer when they were sent to England...

"As you can see my friends, the lights of children in England are going out. For some reason though, the rest of the world has not been affected," North began. He paused as he looked around at his friends. Tooth and Sandy looked especially guilty. From what he could understand from the expressions of hopelessness on their faces, they had both just been in the area in question. The Christmas spirit did not blame them. He knew that they would not willingly let something like this happen.

"So what do we do? Do you know what could be causing this?" Tooth asked tentatively. She was almost frightened of what the answer may be. Her little fairies hovered, also terrified of the answer. Tooth cooed gently like one would to a small child and petted them all individually to soothe them and calm their nerves. Tooth could be very scary when angry, but she had to act as a mother to her little baby fairies too. Besides, there were more important things to worry about right now. They all had to find out the truth of the matter right now. No matter what was causing this, Tooth knew they would be able to set things right.

Unfortunately for the fairy, North shook his head. When she looked towards Sandy with a small glimmer of hope in her eyes, he only shrugged gloomily while making a sad face out of dream sand above his head.

"So ya don't know what it is? Do ya think it could be Pitch?" Bunny asked. The room itself seemed to almost darken as the shadows flickered. They always seemed to do that whenever the Boogeyman was mentioned by name, so it was hard to tell whether Bunny had guessed right or whether it was just a trick that Pitch somehow mastered without even having to be in the room. Maybe it was just their imaginations.

"Not sure, hard to say when only one part of world affected," North stroked his beard thoughtfully before saying, "You know my friends, we could always pay Pitch a little visit."

Bunny immediately smirked, pulling out his boomerangs and beginning to polish them. He had a feeling that this next part of the adventure could be somewhat fun...to him anyway.

* * *

><p>In a dark and shadowy lair that was hidden under a broken bed that could appear anywhere and everywhere, there was a place where nightmares came true and shadows had a life of their own.<p>

There were multiple steel cages hanging from the ceiling. It was impossible to tell what they were meant to hold. The cages swayed slightly despite there being no breeze, adding to the unnerving atmosphere. There was a minimal amount of lit candles around the lair, casting just enough light to see the shadows that were caused by the flickering light. The shadows almost seemed to be mocking whatever poor soul had found their way down into this horrible place.

The wooden stairs leading to countless other rooms were steep and gave off the illusion that they were never ending, adding to the confusion that could easily be caused by just a few tricks of the light. In one of the bigger rooms there was a huge globe, easily representing the whole world. It was covered in bright lights. Each light was representing a child who believed in the Guardians. But like the Guardians found, there was one place which had a disturbing lack of lights dotting it. England.

It was this place that Pitch Black was inspecting closely. The Boogeyman frowned deeply. It was true that he was an enemy of the Guardians, in fact he did everything he could to weaken them and make children believe in HIM instead. However, this was not his work. If Pitch was going to target just one place he would've chosen a place where there were more children. And besides, Pitch hated when the lights of children blinked out of existence and it wasn't his fault. The only conclusion he could draw up, was that this was the work of someone living in England.

Pitch didn't have much longer to think about it before something roughly grabbed his robe from behind and suddenly had him up against the wall, causing a thick layer of dust to be thrown up from the sheer force of the impact. The Nightmare King scowled and his amber eyes flashed dangerously as he prepared to fight. His scowl deepened when he looked down at his assailant to gaze into the forest green eyes of none other than the Easter Bunny.

The overgrown rabbit was using one paw to hold him up and Pitch became very aware of the boomerang held dangerously close to his neck. When he looked behind the pooka he wasn't at all surprised to see the other guardians, each with a matching scowl almost daring him to try and escape. Pitch chuckled.

"Well well, if it isn't my old friends. What brings you here? If I'd known you were coming, I would have baked a cake," He laughed. However his little comment did nothing to lighten the situation because the guardians looked more serious and Bunny's grip on his robe tightened as Pitch noticed that he could now feel the very sharp edges of the rabbit's boomerang.

"We know what you're doing Pitch," Bunny growled. The grey-skinned spirit raised an eyebrow in scepticism, but said nothing. His golden eyes flashed once again before they involuntarily flickered in the direction of the globe. The Sandman however, caught the direction of his gaze and went to investigate. There didn't seem to be anything sinister about the globe. It looked just like North's globe, except slightly darker.

"I take it that you guardians have been trying to figure out what's going on in England?" Pitch finally said. Something about the question; the way it had been worded and the Nightmare King's tone of voice, just seemed a little odd. And it didn't take them long to wonder why.

Sandy quickly drew their attention to the globe by rattling one of the cages hanging from the ceiling. He pointed and all of the guardians and Pitch could clearly see that another light was going out. While Pitch was on the other side of the room and being held against the wall by Bunny.

Their eyes widened in despair as they looked between Pitch and the flickering light. The Boogeyman's expression darkened as he also watched the light before shaking his head as the small pinprick was slowly extinguished before their very eyes. For once the guardians and Pitch had a common enemy that was preying on the children in England. And as Bunny slowly set Pitch down, they all had to come to terms with the fact that there was something else trying to stop children from believing.

Pitch was not the enemy here.


	4. Chapter 3

**And here is Chapter 3. A word of warning, things start to get a little darker from here. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Rise Of The Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns.**

While the guardians were confronting Pitch, another spirit had found himself in Oxford. He hadn't particularly wanted to go there. The people there didn't need any snow until winter and no one could see him anyway. He wandered around, occasionally sending the cold wind to blow in people's faces. It always amused him to see them shiver and curse the cold weather. After all, it was the closest he could get to some actual acknowledgement. He chuckled gleefully at some adults cursing the weather before coughing himself. The buildings in London always were a wonder to see, but the fumes from the factories made him cough and left a horrible smoky aftertase in his mouth, and his nose was tingling. Time to move on.

As Jack Frost wandered the cobbled streets and looked at the polluted sky that the factories created, he couldn't help but wonder why the wind had brought him here. He was about to question it or maybe ask it to take him back to Burgess, where he had originally planned to go before the wind dropped him off here. And that was when he saw it.

The Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth; what a cheerful sounding place. It didn't seem out of the ordinary. It was just a big grey building. The dull colour of the building definitely made it fit in with all of the other grey buildings in the streets. The white haired spirit could hardly tell the difference between this place and the countless others. A few large steps led up to a pair of double doors, with a huge window right beside it. In front of the window was a sign, greying with age, stating that the building was an orphanage of some kind and the person in charge was someone by the name of Dr. Angus Bumby.

_'A doctor? Guess the kids are well looked after then...'_

Jack didn't have time to finish his train of thought when his gaze dropped and landed on a small group of children patiently waiting outside the establishment. He'd seen a lot of kids their age before. Not one of them were as well behaved as these kids. They all stood there silently waiting, not even shuffling their feet with boredom. They were all dressed very similarly, as if they were about to be paraded in front of someone. Perhaps the staff wanted to show people how well the children were being looked after? Maybe they were going to see potential adopting parents. It would make sense with the children wearing freshly ironed shirts and their best dresses, which weren't much to look at anyway. But they were orphans so Jack had to give them points for trying to look presentable.

What really grabbed the Winter spirit's attention was what was hanging around their necks. Each child, both boys and girls, were wearing some kind of sign that displayed a number. At first Jack thought it might be some odd way of keeping the attendance, but then he spotted two children wearing the same number. Was it because one was a boy and one was a girl?

Jack didn't have time to find out. A tall man in a suit came out of the doors at the top of the steps. He had a mustache, small beard and glasses and Jack instantly didn't like him. Something didn't seem right. After the man appeared to check the children over and was satisfied with their appearance he began to lead them through the cobbled streets. None of the people in the markets seemed to notice or care that he was leading them down dark alleys. Anything could happen! So Jack followed.

And he wished he hadn't.

* * *

><p>They certainly looked an odd group back at Santoff Claussen. The guardians had decided to bring Pitch back with them as he seemed to know more than he was letting on. Once they had arrived, North ordered the yetis to make egg nog for all of them despite Pitch's futile protests. Tooth was staring off into the distance while occasionally giving more orders to her fairies. Sandy twiddled his thumbs nervously and Bunny and Pitch continued to glare at each other. As the silence continued between them, the glares intensified until eventually, Bunny snapped.<p>

"So are ya goin' to tell us what's goin' on or not?"

Pitch didn't answer which only infuriated the Easter Bunny even more. Only when he had been offered a glass of eggnog (which he refused anyway) did Pitch begin to speak.

"Let me make this clear you overgrown rabbit: I haven't done anything to any children, and I don't know what's going on!"

Bunny continued to glare at him before his shoulders slumped in defeat when he realised how genuine the Nightmare King was being for once. There was an awkward silence as the guardians and Pitch wondered what to do. North and Sandy stood off to one side, near one of the windows while the rest of the group was gathered at the globe.

All night the five spirits had been watching over the globe while hoping and praying that no other lights would go out. Fortunately, the few remaining lights had stayed glowing. They were dim, and would occasionally flicker, but it seemed that these few remaining children were strong and the guardians were glad FOR that.

Pitch had just told them his theory: how he thought that this could be the work of a human living in the area. He said that a spirit with ill intentions would either continue with the rest of the country, or go to other countries and start the same process all over again. Bunny and Tooth were trying desperately to work out who it could be, with the Nightmare King pitching in every now and then.

North was just about to discuss what could be actually happening to the children with Sandy when they heard a small tapping noise. Sandy blinked his sleepy eyes in confusion and looked around. The other spirits didn't seem to hear the noise. Perhaps the lack of sleep and the emergency itself was causing them to hear things.

But then the noise came again. A little more urgently this time. When North and Sandy turned to face the direction of the noise, which was coming from the window behind them, they were faced with none other than the mischievious Winter spirit: Jack Frost. Except he didn't look so mischievious this time. He was even paler than usual and he looked...frightened and upset?

North was not accustomed to seeing those two expressions on the young spirit's face. He and Sandy quickly excused themselves to the kitchen to "refill on eggnog". Luckily the other spirits didn't seem to notice too much and easily dismissed them. Sandy quickly turned back toward the window and pointed in the direction of the kitchen, in which the smell of gingerbread, cookies and hot chocolate drifted out the door and windows. The white-haired spirit quickly nodded and flew in the direction of the kitchen window.

Once the two spirits had walked as quickly as possible to the kitchen without looking too eager to get away, North closed the door and made sure that the others would not come near. He also sent the elves and yetis away while Sandy opened up the window that let in the cold wind, snowflakes and a shaking Jack Frost. What could make Jack Frost shake as if he could feel the cold that he caused everywhere he went?

Before the Christmas spirit could even ask what was wrong, Jack had gripped his shoulders tightly, his ice-blue eyes meeting North's gentle and concerned ones in a frightened stare. The grip of Jack's hands created a slight chill to form in North's giant form and he shivered slightly. The poor spirit before them looked genuininely terrified, as if something he'd seen had disturbed him a great deal. The two older spirits didn't even have to ask what was wrong because Jack had already started stammering incoherently. After about two minutes of this, they finally managed to get something out of the poor boy that they could actually understand.

"The kids! In London!"

That was all they needed to hear. North and Sandy instantly paid attention to the shaky Winter spirit. Sandy brought out a stool that was placed at the counter. The elves must've been using it to aid in their attempts to make cookies. Jack sat down and ran a hand through his hair as he gripped his staff with the other hand, using it to support his weight so he could lean on it slightly. The dream spirit floated up and put his hand on Jack's shoulder, silently encouraging him to continue.

Still shaking, Jack tried to gulp in a few breaths of air to calm himself. Instead he ended up covering the stool in a light layer of frost as he reminded himself why he was here. He dropped his staff and buried his face in his hands and sobbed helplessly. Those poor kids. He'd tried to do something. But they all just walked through him. He was right there, and he couldn't do anything to help those poor children.

Feeling North pat his back comfortingly, the Winter spirit finally managed to compose himself. Although he felt guilty, once he explained Jack was sure that they wouldn't blame him. He knew that he could annoy the other guardians with his pranks sometimes but surely they would realise that he wouldn't even dream of doing something like...like that.

"I was in Oxford. I just ended up there by accident," he began. As Jack finally found the courage to tell his tale, North and Sandy listened closely. "I found this group of kids outside an orphanage. They were just standing there like puppets. All dressed up. I thought that, maybe they were going to see some people who could adopt them or something. Oh! And they all had a number around their neck! I thought it was some kind of attendance thing."

As odd as this sounded, it didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary. North and Sandy looked at each scepticly, beginning to wonder if listening to Jack was a waste of time. He could be pulling another prank after all. But as he continued with his story, Jack's voice became more and more frantic as if every second counted.

"So this doctor guy comes out the place and takes the kids down all these dark alleys. I didn't like the look of him so I followed, just to make sure that everything was okay. And then...well..." he paused, not entirely sure how to say this next part.

"Jack, any information that you have on the safety of children WILL be taken seriously," North reassured him. Jack looked uncertainly at Sandy, who greeted him with a confident nod, a small smile and a salute. Jack smiled back gratefully before he let his smile fall back into a frown.

"The Black Market. He took them to the Black Market. There were all these...creepy guys there. They were looking over the kids as if they were meat and then they would..." Jack lost his voice here as he thought again about what he had seen. Sandy patted his arm to get him to carry on.

"They...they were...They were touching the kids. And the kids would just let them, like they had given up or something. And then they paid this doctor guy and take one of the kids with them!" North and Sandy felt their faces drain of colour when they heard this. Surely it couldn't be true. No one was that cruel as to harm a helpless child.

North instantly sprang into action. He gripped the young spirit's shoulders, while reassuring him that he wasn't in trouble. But he had to make sure of the danger before acting on it.

"When you say 'touching', what exactly do you mean?"

At that, Jack buried his face in his hands once again. Now that the danger that was threatening the children seemed to have been identified, the temperature seemed to have dropped. After reassuring the poor Winter spirit that he had done the right thing in coming to them, and telling him to go to Oxford to look after the children until Sandy sent a dream animal for him to go back to the Pole, the two older spirits finally exited the kitchen.

The other two guardians and Pitch hadn't really gone anywhere with their discussion. If anything, they had gone backwards and Bunny had gone right back to bickering with Pitch and now the two were in the process of accusing each other of what was going on, with Tooth holding Bunny back from actually doing anything while she yelled across at the dark-haired spirit to shut up.

The noise died down when North stomped into the room with a face like thunder and Sandy hurrying along behind him. Once the Russian explained that they had just received new information about the subject from a different spirit "who didn't wish to be named". Bunny raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing more.

When the others heard what the new information was, they were horrified. Even Pitch, who loved nothing more than terrifying children with nightmares, was greatly disturbed by this development. All of the spirits were disturbed by this news. North and Sandy were the only ones who knew that Jack was the one who had seen all of this. And they knew he hadn't made it up because he was still a child himself. Children didn't lie unless they had been naughty, and Jack had been frightened. Not a hint of mischief in him, whatsoever. He couldn't have been pulling a prank.

"So what do we do? What CAN we do?!" Tooth asked urgently, little fairies fluttering about in a panic as she tried desperately to calm them down. Bunny took hold of one of her small hands and stroked it gently as a way to comfort the fairy. Her magenta eyes met his as she gripped his paw tightly, but she was still very tearful.

The other spirits looked at each other uncertainly. Though usually enemies, they all knew that they would have to work together to stop this. How could they work together when they were natural enemies?

As they all thought the same thing, the moon began to shine in the sky. North's eyes widened with relief. The Man in the Moon hadn't abandoned them! He was going to help them after all! Looking around the room, North could easily see that his fellow guardians and Pitch were just as relieved as he was. But instead of the moonlight lighting up the crystal to show a new guardian had been selected, like everyone was expecting, the moonlight created an image of a girl or a young woman who still appeared to be a mortal.

"Who the bloody 'ell is that supposed to be?"

The other guardians looked back at Bunny and shrugged, all of them wearing the same expression of confusion. The silhouette didn't have any distinguishing figures. She had shoulder length hair, was wearing a dress with a ribbon tied into a bow behind her back. It was only when the light of the moon conjured up a rabbit that the girl began to chase, that Pitch actually recognised the girl.

He had come across this girl years ago, in a horrible asylum with bloodstained walls and patients roaming around in straight jackets. All kinds of horrible experimental cures were carried out here, from using leeches to lobotomies. It was the perfect place to create nightmares. Which he had done for years. Until he came across this girl. Her name was Alice. Alice Liddell. She had been admitted to the asylum after her family died in a house fire. How did he know this? The nurses talked amongst themselves, they never would stop gossiping.

She hadn't been able to see him, although he could feel distinct waves of fear rolling off her when she was actually sane enough to realise where she was, which didn't happen often or for very long, but for some reason the girl still managed to stare at him with her emerald green eyes. Pitch got the feeling that it wasn't HIM she was afraid of. And that unnerved him more than anything.

The Nightmare King would enter her dreams to find out what was going on in her mind. The things he found were nothing short of horrific. Surely a child shouldn't dream of these monstrosities, and yet there she would be. Conversing with them as if they were all good friends, even if some of them did attack her viciously. And her retaliations were always just as vicious. She took no prisoners if she felt threatened in her own dreams. Because of this he began to grow fond of the child.

Years passed in the asylum, and Alice grew. Pitch began to wonder if she would ever get out of that place. And then all of a sudden, she seemed to have cured herself somehow. The girl, or young woman as she was now, was immediately released to take over her own life without any further questions asked. The last time he had checked in on her, she was living...in the same area as those children.

Which meant that Alice might know something about this. She HAD been having very vivid dreams like she did in the asylum, at least they seemed very vivid when he checked in on them. Perhaps the guardians and Pitch would be able to move through her. The Man in the Moon seemed to have the same idea.

The grey-skinned spirit took a quick breath in and out as he tried to figure out what to say.

Time to tell the truth.

**Well, I hope you guys liked it! **


	5. Chapter 4

**Here's Chapter 4. Sorry it took so long! **

**I'd like to thank Scorpiofreak for being my very patient beta-reader and a big thanks to everyone who has been reviewing and following this story! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Rise Of The Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns. If I did, then that would be the coolest thing ever! xD**

"I suppose I should admit something..."

The Guardians looked at Pitch expectantly, the silhouette of the girl still glowing behind them. The Nightmare King almost felt nervous about what he was going to say next; no doubt he would most likely be judged on it. It had to come out in the open though, for the sake of the children that were in real danger, and for the sake of the girl who could help them. This was going to be awkward.

Pitch scratched at his jet black hair nervously. It was a nervous habit that he developed when he was still very young, before he became the Nightmare King. His wife had picked up on it very quickly, but after his new persona took over, he had dropped it. So eyebrows were raised when seeing him act so out of character. He decided to just blurt it out before things got too awkward.

"I know who the girl is."

The others were instantly alert. Any drinks that the spirits had in their hands were instantly set down on a nearby table as they all turned their attention to Pitch. Sandy made a question mark out of dreamsand above his head while Tooth and her fairies looked from Bunny, to North, and then to Pitch before looking back at Bunny and continuing the cycle. North gestured for Pitch to continue.

"Her name is Alice Liddell."

A pause and silence. The only noise came from the logs burning in the fireplace, casting a warm glow on the entire room. Everyone's faces instantly went blank when hearing the name. Bunny's right eye twitched slightly as he tried to recall where he had heard it. The Tooth Fairy raised a finger, seeming to have recalled something, before lowering it when she found that she couldn't remember. North seemed to be equally as clueless.

Sandy was the only one who seemed to recognise the name, for he immediately created an exclamation mark before changing it to the silhouette of a girl chasing a rabbit who then proceeded to fall down a rabbit hole, according to the conjuring. Pitch nodded at the Guardian of Dreams before continuing with his explanation.

"I first saw her in an asylum in Oxford. I was spreading nightmares when I came across her. But I didn't give her nightmares; she was already having them."

North frowned at this. Why was she at an asylum in the first place? Would she even be any help to them? The Christmas spirit glanced at Bunny, who had folded his arms and didn't look at all convinced that this information may help.

Before any of the guardians could ask why, Pitch carried on. Better to have it out in the open than just have them interrupting all the time. For once, he didn't want to look at their faces when he told them about Alice. He turned away so he wouldn't have to look at the shock and horror of what happened to the poor girl.

"She was only seven years old at the time. I heard some of the orderlies talk about her. There had been a fire at the house and Alice was the only one who got out alive. Her family perished. I thought she was having nightmares about that night so I tried to enter them. I was going to try and stop the nightmares. Being in that asylum was horrible enough. The treatments were terrible. She didn't deserve that."

Sandy felt shocked. He felt he should've known about this. Looking at the faces of the other guardians, he could see that they all felt the same way. Surely they couldn't be the ones to blame for Alice's history. They couldn't be in every place at the same time. Maybe Tooth could get close to that with her fairies, but they still wouldn't have been able to do anything.

"When I entered the dreams, I didn't find the nightmares that I expected to find. It was a kind of dream world. I believe it was the same one that you mentioned Sanderson. Except, it was such a horrible place that I couldn't believe that a mere child conjured it up. To cut a long story short, Alice stayed in her dream world until she left the asylum. She's currently living in the area where the children are in danger."

The guardians were definitely paying attention now. Any doubt that Bunny had was now gone as he considered the potential ally that they may now have. Pitch finally turned back to face them.

"There's a possibility that she may know what's going on. Alice may be able to stop this."

Tooth fluttered closer to Pitch. Despite the fact that Alice's experience in the asylum had been utterly horrible according to Pitch, there was still something that was bothering her about the whole thing.

"Pitch, how exactly do you know where Alice is now? Why did you watch her for all those years in the asylum?"

The Nightmare King looked the Tooth Fairy in her magenta eyes. As the fairy met his golden gaze, she was sure she could see something that could only be seen as sadness.

"Because she always knew I was there, even though she couldn't see me."

North didn't need to hear any more as he turned to Sandy and nodded. Though the other spirits didn't quite understand the silent exchange, the dream maker knew what to do. Sandy floated towards the window and opened it slightly, ignoring the blizzard outside and the few icy snowflakes that landed on his nose. He quickly conjured up some of his dreamsand and blew it outside, allowing the wind to carry it to a certain Winter spirit who was waiting for the signal.

Jack sat on the rooftop of the orphanage, watching streams of smog fill the grey sky. The pollution was so bad that it was getting to the point where the sun would sometimes disappear amidst the smog. Not that Jack really cared right now. He had more important things to take care of.

Since he had returned to Oxford, the white haired spirit had made it his personal mission to look after the children, which was why he stayed at the orphanage. Whenever he saw anything suspicious, he would cause the temperature to fall until the humans who were causing this terrible disaster gave up and went inside to get a warm cup of tea, while pretending that nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

Occasionally when he saw that horrible doctor trying to sell more children, he would cause the ground to freeze over. When the doctor would slip and fall, it would allow any children he had with him to escape. They would have more than enough time to run while the doctor was cursing and scrambling back to his feet. The sad thing though is that they never did. The poor children just stared blankly into space and never moved an inch unless the doctor told them to. This only made Jack more upset and angry at the man who claimed to be taking care of them.

The Winter spirit sighed and ran his hands through his messy white hair. Why was the Man in the Moon even allowing this to happen? There's no way he would've let this go on. Maybe that was why the Guardians seemed to already be in action. They probably didn't even need him. Maybe he should just go.

No. Jack shook his head and closed his eyes, trying to get rid of the poisonous thoughts that were eating away at him. No, he made a promise to himself. Whether the Guardians needed him or not, he wasn't going to let someone do this to the children. He didn't care if it meant people walked through him every day. If he could contribute to stopping this, then that would be the only acknowledgement he would need.

Jack's eyes instantly flew open when he heard something strangely familiar. Standing up and grabbing his staff, he prepared to aim for whoever was posing as the threat to the children this time, only to find that the street he was looking at was completely normal.

No one from the orphanage was outside. Some of the people who lived in the area were beginning to set up stalls, no doubt for the market. He could already see the stall selling meat was up and ready to sell. Jack grimaced at the meat that was being sold. None of it looked like it was healthy. He felt sorry for the animals who had to suffer in order for the butcher to get the produce. And if the bloodstains on his apron were anything to go by, then the animals didn't die humanely.

The Winter spirit frowned as he slowly lowered his staff. Besides the usual every day routine along this street, nothing was out of the ordinary. When he looked, he saw a small golden bird quickly flying towards him. England didn't have any birds that looked like that as far as he knew. As the bird flew closer, Jack recognised the glow. This wasn't a bird. It was a dream animal. Which meant that it was time to return to Santoff Claussen.

The bird dissipated into normal dreamsand and slowly drifted into the street below. Jack gripped his staff and floated upwards. The wind whipped at his clothes and hair wildly, the usual signal to him that it was ready to take him where he needed to be. The spirit relaxed and closed his eyes as he felt the icy wind pulling him up into the sky, wrapping him in an embrace which he knew he could trust not to fail him.

"Wind, take me to the Pole."

"Okay, so what do we do? How can Alice help us when she can't see us?"

Pitch frowned. He hadn't exactly thought about that. The spirits wouldn't be able to help directly. Afterall, Alice was technically an adult now. If she couldn't see any spirits when she was a child, then there would be no way that she would be able to see any now.

However, the Man in the Moon didn't actually say they had to help directly. Perhaps he meant that Alice would be on her own when taking any action, while the spirits just gave her little pushes in the right direction. But if that were truly the case, then how...wait...

"Wonderland." Pitch murmured to himself.

Bunny's ears swivelled towards the other spirit. He looked at Pitch sceptically, having only barely heard what he had said. Wonderland? It sounded like a child's fairy land with gingerbread houses and unicorns. How in MiM's name would prancing around like a fairy help in any way?

North and Tooth seemed to have the same idea. Their expressions were just as befuddled. Even Sandy didn't seem to understand where the Nightmare King was going with this. Pitch rolled his eyes. He honestly felt like he had to do all the work for them.

"Wonderland is Alice's dreamland. When I actually saw it, it wasn't as nice as I thought it would be. The creatures there were downright disturbing, and what Alice did was even more so. In her Wonderland, Alice was able to destroy anything that threatened her using toys as weapons. I believe it was what helped her get out of the asylum. She's influenced a lot by her dreams. If we influence her dreams in some way..."

Pitch trailed off, silently hoping that one of the guardians might actually contribute towards the idea that had already formed in his head. He wasn't disappointed.

"Then she'll find out what's happening to the children, and be able to stop it!"

Tooth clapped her hands excitedly. Finally a plan was coming into action. Perhaps they would be alright after all. Pitch smirked and nodded, glad that someone had finally caught on. Sandy held two thumbs up and grinned showing that he liked the idea.

For the next hour the spirits discussed how they could each influence Alice in her dream world. Pitch said that it would be better to help her fight there. There was no knowing what would happen or what she would go up against.

North immediately started designing ideas for toys and other devices that could be used as weapons. By the time he had finished brainstorming, the Christmas spirit had come up with four items that Alice would be able to use to fight. The first one he had designed was a clock that was shaped like a rabbit. When the timer was set and then finally reached zero it would explode. It looked like a clock, but was actually a bomb. North designed it so that the explosion would never hurt Alice though. The second weapon was actually a pepper grinder. It wasn't like other pepper grinders though. It acted like a gun. When the gear was turned, it would shoot out grains of pepper. By the time North finished testing and tweaking, it was able to create quite a hit. The next weapon was one that North was probably the most proud of. It was a hobby horse, with extraordinary strength. It would be able to break through any enemy defences, and would probably be able to break down any walls. He was sure it would come in handy. The final weapon was an oversized teapot. On hitting the button that charged its power, the teapot would release a grenade which, on impact, would become scalding tea. Something that was bound to be an unpleasant experience.

Bunny had gone with a different approach. He wasn't good at coming up with ideas for weapons. He left that to North. So he instead went back to his warren. After rummaging around in an old cupboard he finally found what he was looking for.

When the pooka brought his find back to the Pole, the others were a little surprised at what it was. The only thing he had brought was a slightly dusty jar of crimson red paint. Bunny looked at the blank faces and knew what the others were thinking. Instead he shrugged.

"It'll help her get stronger."

That was the only explanation he had given. The other spirits hadn't asked how it would make Alice stronger. The Easter Bunny was an expert when it came to paint. He wouldn't make a mistake when so much was at stake. He knew what he was doing.

Tooth wasn't good at creating weapons either. She had tried. The fairy had been working at one of the other tables in another corner of the room, working diligently on something that she wouldn't let anyone else see. While everything was temporarily quiet, the other spirits had heard a very loud bang come from that direction.

Tooth wasn't amused at her experiment literally blowing up in her face and getting soot all over her feathers. It didn't help that her fairies had started pointing and giggling at their mother's unfortunate experience. They were quickly silenced by a small glare, before Tooth's expression finally fell to one of dispair and gloom, her wings drooping to show her mood as she let out a sigh of frustration.

Before the other spirits could do anything or even offer up any idea they had, Sandy had floated over towards Toothiana to look at the charred remains of her poor experiment. She glanced up at his face miserably; she knew that there was no way to recover what had seemed to be a good idea at the time.

Sandy took her small hand in his and smiled encouragingly. His confidence in her didn't seem to cheer Tooth up. Then the Sandman created a tooth out of dreamsand above his head, before then recreating the silhouette of Alice. The Tooth Fairy didn't seem to understand at first. When the golden spirit pointed up at dreamsand Alice and then towards the dreamsand tooth, her eyes widened in a sudden spurt of inspiration as the fairy gave a little gasp of happiness at being able to help.

No one had time to say anything else though because Tooth was already flying out the window and in the direction of Tooth Palace. North turned towards the Sandman and raised an eyebrow, quietly asking what idea he had put into Tooth's head. The dream spirit just shrugged and smiled. The Christmas spirit didn't really need to ask in the end because less than an hour later, Tooth fluttered back into Santoff Claussen.

Apparently she had flown at full speed in order to get what she wanted, and Tooth had gone all the way to Tooth Palace to get one of the millions of memory boxes that stored the memories of all the children in the world. However this memory box wasn't just any memory box that Tooth had randomly picked up. It was Alice's memory box.

Surprisingly she had lost her last baby tooth less than a year ago. Which meant that there was bound to be something of value in her actual memories that would help to point her in the right direction.

The Nightmare King decided to help in a different way by doing what he did best. He was going to bring Alice's worst fear to life. What the young woman feared more than anything itself, was losing her own sanity. The other spirits may think it incredibly cruel for Alice to encounter her worst fear when she had barely been out of the asylum for a year, but Pitch believed that it may actually help her.

Pitch had seen what she did in asylum when losing her mind. She attacked some of the orderlies just because they decided to "feed" porridge to her toy rabbit. The attack was quite vicious, considering she attacked with a spoon. If that was what the girl could do when not entirely in her right mind, then Pitch could only imagine the damage and destruction she could cause if she lost complete control over that ability. Which was exactly what he was going to give her. Pitch was going to give her the ability to embrace her fear and use it to her advantage. She would fall into hysteria, and she would be deadly. Luckily, Pitch had carefully managed to harness the ability so that it would only kick in when Alice was on her last legs when in Wonderland. The ability wouldn't transfer over to the waking world, which he was sure Alice would appreciate greatly, even if she didn't actually know it was him giving her the ability.

Finally there was Sandy. He didn't want to create any weapons for fear of taking away the wonder and fun that North found in creating the items. However he did have a plan. Once he explained to Tooth via sign language, and then she explained to the others, the plan definitely seemed to make sense.

Pitch had explained that Alice was more open-minded and influenced most by her dreams. If she was going to go to Wonderland again, then they needed a way of inserting the weapons, abilities and other helpful items into the dreamland. What better way to do that than to use dreamsand? Besides, they were going to have to send Alice to sleep at some point, perhaps even more than once now that she was out of the asylum.

The guardians laid out their creations on one of the tables, while Pitch brought out a small broken mirror with a withered red rose bloom frozen inside of it. When the guardians looked at the mirror and then at Pitch, he just rolled his eyes.

"It'll come in handy."

Nothing more was said. Although North and the others weren't too sure, after hearing how he watched over Alice they trusted him. Well, they trusted him enough to do nothing that would result in Alice getting hurt. He was their ally in this battle. And they all had a feeling that he would not let them down.

They were ready to put their plan into action.


	6. Chapter 5

**So here's Chapter 5. Writer's block really sucks hehe. I'd like to thank Scorpiofreak for being my beta-reader. I'd also like to thank everyone who has been reading/reviewing/following the story so far. You guys are awesome! ^^**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Rise Of The Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns**

"You've got to be joking."

Pitch stared at the white haired boy standing in front of him. He couldn't believe it. He physically had to force himself not to let his jaw drop. The Winter spirit blushed slightly and messed with his hair, clearly embarrassed.

When North and Sandy had pulled the Nightmare King to one side, explaining that they wanted him to meet with the one who provided the information on the children, Pitch had expected someone...more mature. He hadn't expected the informant to be the biggest practical joker on the planet. Now he could understand why this was meant to be a secret.

Before introducing the two, the guardians had explained to Pitch that it was important to keep the meeting a secret. He had tried to ask why, but North just said that Bunny had a grudge against this particular spirit, and there was no knowing how Tooth would react. The Nightmare King had found it a little odd, but he didn't question it. He cursed himself for not doing so now.

Pitch tried to protest. The younger spirit had also protested against working with the spirit of nightmares, so that made his job easier in a way. However North and Sandy both shook their heads and glared at the two in that reprimanding way of theirs. Jack Frost had quickly shut up and Pitch stopped trying not long after. North then turned to Jack.

"Jack, there's a human who can help us."

Jack raised an eyebrow but said no more. He didn't want to risk drawing the attention of the other guardians. North and Sandy had made it perfectly clear from the start that they wanted this meeting to stay a secret.

Sandy proceeded to create the silhouette of Alice with his dreamsand and then pointed at Jack. He wasn't quite sure what the Sandman was getting at. Pitch rolled his eyes and turned to the younger spirit.

"This is Alice Liddell. She's currently staying in the area where the children are in danger. She's influenced by her dreams, so she's the only one who can help us."

Jack's icy blue eyes widened at what he had been told. He took a closer look at the silhouette, squinting his eyes to try and pick out any distinguishing features. The girl appeared to be in her late teens, had shoulder length hair and wore a dress and an apron with the ends tied into a bow against the small of her back. That was all he could pick out.

He searched his memory, trying to recall if he had seen anyone like that in the area while he had been there. Then it clicked.

He had seen a girl looking exactly like that, coming out of the very orphanage where the children were being kept. He wasn't sure what exactly that meant, though. Jack could feel his face drain so that he was even paler than before, and the other spirits were quick to pick up on it. Especially Pitch.

Before he knew what was going on around him, Jack had been grabbed at the scruff by the Nightmare King. The older spirit's amber eyes flashed dangerously as he felt the small amount of fear coming off of Jack.

"You've seen her."

Jack nodded. He sensed that Pitch had some kind of connection with the girl, and he wasn't sure if the Nightmare King would be able to accept what he saw. Fortunately for him, North stepped in. The leader of the guardians placed his hand on Pitch's arm, silently convincing him to let go of Jack. Once the Winter spirit had been released and Sandy was standing between them, North gestured for Jack to explain.

"She's staying at the orphanage. The one where the creepy doctor is."

Jack regretted saying the sentence the moment it left his mouth. Sandy's shoulders slumped in defeat, North looked as melancholy as a Christmas spirit could. Pitch had turned away. He didn't want the others seeing his expression because he couldn't explain why he felt so betrayed. It was only after seeing their reactions that Jack thought of something. Before the other spirits could go and tell the other guardians to think of another plan, Jack used the wind to jump into the air and land in front of them, unintentionally frosting Pitch's robe slightly in his haste.

"Wait! I don't think she even knows what this doctor is doing to the children! When I saw her, she kinda had the same look as they did. Whatever the doctor is doing to the children, I think he might be doing to her! But she's not as far gone yet, there's still a chance!"

The spirits had looked slightly more depressed when hearing that Alice may be a victim too, but when Jack said that she wasn't completely gone yet, it gave them hope. There was still hope that they may reach her in time, and if they do then they'll be able to put their plan into action.

"Jack you'll have to go and keep an eye on her. Make sure that nothing happens to her before she goes into her dreamland, and protect her from anything and everything while she's in her dream."

Everyone was so stunned that Pitch had suddenly taken charge that they didn't protest. Jack just nodded silently. The Nightmare King turned to Sandy next.

"Sanderson, you'll go with him and make sure that Alice is asleep. You'll need to incorporate the help that she's getting from the outside."

Sandy grinned and gave two thumbs up. For once he was pleased and excited to be on the same side as the Boogeyman. North, being the excited little child that he is on the inside, also got excited and was eagerly waiting for his important task.

"North, you're in charge of making sure the other two don't find out about this."

Jack almost winced at the brushoff that Pitch seemed to give North. Sandy hit his forehead in frustration and risked looking at the giant of a man. The Christmas spirit was staring at Pitch with his big blue eyes. It was impossible to tell what his was thinking. The silence almost became too much to bear until he finally began to bubble with bellowing laughter that filled the room and almost caused it to echo. North started towards the door, still chuckling before turning and looking right into Pitch's amber eyes.

"I will get right on it."

The Nightmare King smirked as he looked at the closed door. Without even turning to the other two spirits, he said one final comment.

"That was too easy."

* * *

><p>It was just as Jack had suspected.<p>

Once they had arrived in Oxford, Jack and Sandy had made it their first priority to look for Alice. The plan was about to be put into action as soon as possible. It would be easier to do this if they could find Alice before Pitch arrived. He said he wanted to be involved somehow. Whatever that meant.

As the two spirits flew through the smog, and attempted to ignore the burning sensation in their eyes and throat, Sandy was able to see just how horrible a place it had become. He spotted some children standing idly by one of the dark alleyways. He saw with dismay that the younger spirit had been right. He could see the numbers around each child's neck.

Jack had led Sandy straight to the orphanage where this "creepy doctor" was carrying out his dirty work. Some of the children were outside in the street. These children also had numbers around their necks, but it seemed as if they weren't too far gone for they were playing. There was an exception though: one little girl in a grey dress. They didn't have to see the number to know it was there. They just couldn't see it because the poor thing was standing in a corner, facing the wall and refusing to speak.

The two spirits started looking through some of the windows, with little luck. Jack looked through one window and was disturbed to find a girl drawing all over the wall. Her companion had a pair of scissors, and was cutting at the grey curtains feverishly. Sandy looked through another window to find three boys surrounding another boy, who was curled into the fetal position. It appeared that the boys were taunting him and calling out names, but besides this there was no damage done. The Sandman blew some dreamsand through the window and onto the boys, causing all four to fall asleep instantly. At least he could relieve the boy of his torment that way. Just as they were about to give up, they heard a distressed sound coming from an upstairs window. The sound had been slightly muffled through the glass, but it was enough to get their attention.

"Wonderland is destroyed! My mind is in ruins!"

Jack and Sandy exchanged glances. Wonderland? Was Alice really the only one with a Wonderland? Upon peeking through the window, the two were dismayed to find Alice herself. She was lying down on a faded maroon bed, obviously used for therapy. She had her eyes closed tightly and she tossed and turned in her distress. She was very pale, looking almost as if she was ill. Her dark hair had become slightly messy from the tossing and turning, and her arms were by her side with her left hand falling limply to the side. All in all she looked quite the sorry sight. Despite this, Jack couldn't help but admit that she could look a little pretty, if she looked a little healthier and wore a nicer dress.

Beside her was none other than the doctor. A triumphant smirk found its way onto his face as he saw how much pain Alice appeared to be in. He quickly pocketed a key that had previously been swinging back and forth on a piece of string and not long after, Alice appeared to wake up whilst clutching at her head due to a sudden painful headache. Jack caught sight of her emerald green eyes the way they appeared to glare at the world around her. He had seen a lot of humans before. Not once had he seen eyes like the ones Alice had. She was definitely unique. The Winter spirit was starting to understand why the others had taken such an interest in her.

The Winter Spirit had been right. Alice was just as much a victim in this. Sandy thanked the Man in the Moon that Pitch had not been here to witness what was going on. Alice still seemed to have a little fight in her, if the snarky comments towards the Doctor were anything to go off of.

After being given some instructions to pick up some pills from the chemist, Alice left the room and Jack and Sandy waited for the young woman to eventually arrive outside. It didn't take long. As she walked down the steps, the two spirits were able to catch her saying, "Another day. A different dream, perhaps."

She passed the man on the corner playing a violin, and even went into the little corner where some of the children were playing, Jack and Sandy following close behind. They watched silently as Alice tried to approach and talk to the little girl facing the wall. She reached out her hand, as if to try and coax the girl into talking. They were surprised that it actually worked, and even more puzzled as to what the girl said.

"The Sandman's coming in his train of cars,

with moonbeam windows and wheels of stars.

So hush you little ones and have no fear,

the man in the moon, he is the engineer."

Jack looked towards Sandy as if he could try and explain this strange poem, but the dreammaker just shrugged uneasily. Something didn't seem right about it. Everything about this whole situation wasn't right. They didn't have any time to think about it though, because Alice had taken off again.

Just as she was about to walk through them, Jack pulled the smaller man into a nearby alley. He knew how painful it was to have someone walk through you, and he didn't want it happening to Sandy.

One look at Alice showed that she was starting to get a dazed look again, and was definitely about to go to the chemist to get those pills. They needed to stop that from happening. Jack almost jumped out of his skin when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking behind him, he discovered that Pitch had simply appeared out of the shadows.

"If you're trying to get her on her own, she likes following animals. Especially if they are white."

At this, Jack's eyes widened and he tightened his grip on his staff, shaking his head. He didn't know how to do anything like that, but then he looked at Sandy's encouraging grin and thumbs up, and then at Pitch's flashing amber eyes that looked like they were going to murder him if he didn't at least try.

Sandy conjured up an image of a rabbit. So Jack carefully tried to create a snow rabbit. The moment he had finished, it disappeared in a flurry of snowflakes. The Winter spirit grinned nervously at Pitch as the older spirit's face darkened. He tried again but like the first snow rabbit, it disappeared into snowflakes. Then Jack realised something. So he created a different animal out of snow and ice; a cat that was a little skinny, but with fur that was as white as the snow, and would certainly be a bright beacon in the dull London streets, and this time it stayed put. Well, at least until it darted out of the alleyway and into the streets.

Before Jack could feel too disappointed, the three spirits realised that the snow cat had done the job. The cat had caught Alice's attention and as planned, she had begun to chase it through the winding streets, leaving the spirits to try and quickly catch up with her.

Alice chased the snowy cat through dark alleyways and through the cobbled streets. Even the spirits had a hard time keeping up because she was running so fast. Luckily they could hear the 'clip-clop' of Alice's shoes on the cobbles as she ran, which helped them to keep track of her. Eventually though, she seemed to come to a stop at a dead end. And this time, she was very much alone. As Alice slowed down, Pitch creeped up to her from the shadows and gave a light tap on the back of her head before quickly hiding with Sandy and Jack.

"What did you do?" Jack asked.

"Something that'll help her get to sleep." That was all that was said.

When they looked back towards Alice, they found that she had quickly turned around and was facing back towards the way she had come. Her hands had come up towards her face, and she looked positively terrified. Sandy stole a glance at the Boogeyman and shook his head. Pitch always seemed to think that nightmares were the answer.

As Alice took several steps back away from whatever she was seeing, she quickly turned again and grew even more terrified. She slowly started to turn in a circle, positively horrified by the nightmare that was being shown. Pitch grabbed Sandy's arm to get his attention.

"Get ready to put her under Sanderson. It's nearly time."

Sandy started to gather up dreamsand into a cloud and he pulled out the items that Pitch and the other guardians had prepared. Just as he was about to insert them into the dreamsand and sprinkle the sand over Alice, an old woman approached her and grabbed her shoulder.

"My stars and garters, Alice Liddell! Slumming again are we?"

Pitch cursed loudly. They were so close. That miserable hag just had to step in. Alice and the woman proceeded to talk, Sandy putting the small items back into the bag he'd been carrying and allowing the dreamsand to dissipate.

"So what do we now Pitch?"

Pitch was too busy watching the old woman. Her grey hair had been tied into a bun, she had small glasses and wore a brown shawl over her shoulder to keep her warm from the chilly wind. The woman's was wrinkled like an old boot, stunk of alcohol and her nose! Well, her nose had to be at least half the size of her head. Pitch couldn't help but smirk at the ridiculous sight, and even Jack sniggered. The woman seemed familiar, and she certainly knew Alice. When the woman invited Alice back to her house to look at the pigeons, Pitch couldn't believe their luck. They would still be able to go through with the plan. He gestured to the others to follow as Alice walked away with the older woman.

The three spirits followed Alice and the ugly old woman to a house that was right in the heart of London. The house itself looked odd here. While the houses surrounding were in better shape, this house was just run down. The brown paint on the door was chipped and faded. The curtains in the windows had holes in them. The small garden outside was overgrown with weeds, and there were thorns everywhere. In a nutshell, the place was a rat hole. Either this was the only place she could afford, or the hag spent her money on something else. Pitch had a good idea of what that "something" was. If the smell on her breath and the numerous bottles that were overflowing from the bins were anything to go by, then Pitch would say that the old hag was an alcoholic.

A few of the men, who were out on the streets selling their wares, whistled when they saw Alice walk past. They howled and catcalled, trying to get her attention. Jack and Sandy instantly grabbed hold of the Nightmare King's arms as he attempted to break free. Normally Pitch would've stayed composed, but seeing Alice at her weakest point was probably the reason for wanting to stop anything that may harm her, and bring her back to that time in the asylum when she would cower away from the doctors and hide in the shadows.

However, Pitch's angry scowl fell and was replaced by a wicked smirk as he saw Alice glare at the men who were now shouting crude comments. The two women had stopped, and as Alice began shouting wicked insults that caused the men to pale slightly, Sandy's jaw dropped. He looked towards Jack, who looked equally baffled. The hag then gripped the younger woman by the wrist, her original intention hadn't been to cause a scene in the middle of the streets.

Sandy looked up at the others desperately; should he put her to fall asleep now? Jack had gripped his snow white hair and was chewing on his bottom lip, obviously not knowing what to do. Pitch rolled his eyes at the Winter spirit before shaking his head in answer to Sandy's silent question. It was too soon to put her to sleep.

The shouting began to die down and the three spirits turned back to see that Alice had practically been dragged up the few steps leading up to the house. The woman quickly ushered Alice inside and had closed the door before the others could get even close. Pitch quickly pointed towards the roof of the house.

The roof itself was covered in hutches that contained way too many pigeons. The rest of the floor was covered with dirty grey feathers and bird feces. Jack scrunched his nose in disgust and immediately started coughing from the thick black smoke that leaked from every single chimney in the area. No matter how long he stuck around this place, he would never get used to the burning sensation in his throat and eyes. The Winter spirit felt a small hand patting him on the back, and turned to see Sandy with his nose and mouth covered up by his tunic, his eyes protected by goggles created from his dreamsand.

Jack offered up a small smile of reassurance before pulling up his own brown cloak around his nose and mouth. Pitch had also had the same idea because the bottom half of his face was covered by his robe, leaving his amber eyes exposed to the polluted air around them.

The three spirits didn't have long to wait. The ugly old woman with the big nose had come straight up to the roof. She picked up a bag of bird seed with her gnarled wrinkled hands and began to sprinkle some of the seeds around for the few birds that had perched on the edge of the roof. The second that Alice opened the door, all three hid behind one of the hutches.

"Ewwww! This is so gross!"

"Quit your complaining Frost, it's not that bad."

"Easy for YOU to say! A pigeon didn't just crap all over your shoulder!"

Sandy and Pitch instantly turned towards Jack, who looked very disgruntled and did indeed have pigeon poop on his right shoulder. Pitch smirked viciously at the younger spirit's misfortune as one of the pigeons proceeded to perch on his snow white hair. Sandy started to laugh silently and held onto his belly, expressing his amusement at the poor boy's worried expression. His ice blue eyes had worriedly turned upwards to try and look at the pigeon. He began to yell in fright when the bird started to flap its wings and flew in the direction of the two mortals. Seeing the two women again quickly sobered them up to their mission.

Before Alice had a chance to say anything to the woman in front of her, Pitch had crept up to her in the shadows and touched the back of her head. The Boogeyman quickly gestured for Sandy to install his part of the plan as Alice began to look at the woman, horrified at what she was seeing.

"Sanderson! Now!"

Sandy quickly conjured his dreamsand, inserting the items from the guardians and sent it towards Alice. Luckily, the Sandman never missed when putting someone to sleep. The dreamsand hit Alice and the three spirits watched as the items made their way into her head through the dreamsand that was now circling the young woman's head.

That was when the old woman turned around. Alice had started staggering and quickly put her hand out to lean against one of the hutches as her legs wobbled and eventually gave way beneath her. The dreamsand above her head showed her falling down a hole with cogs and pocket watches before transforming into a more powerful version of herself; she was in Wonderland. The old woman started towards her as Alice clutched at her head and she fell back, hitting her head on the floor before her eyes finally closed.

"Alice?"

The woman squinted at the collapsed form before kneeling down beside her. Pitch, Sandy and Jack thought that she might try and help Alice in some way. Their jaws almost dropped when the old woman stuck her hands in the pockets of Alice's dress, obviously looking for some money. On failing to find anything, the hag groaned and snarled at in disgust at the trouble that was obviously going to be caused.

"Hmph, nothing. Should've known. Girl is nothin' but trouble. Typical that the one who starts the fire is the one who survives. Suppose I'd better go and get Bumby then."

The old woman left Alice alone on the roof, probably to get "Bumby". All three spirits looked at each other. Pitch didn't believe the woman. He saw how bad the girl was in the asylum, there was no way that Alice caused the fire. If she did, then he was fairly certain that it would've been an accident. By the looks on the faces of his current companions, they were thinking the same thing.

He turned to Jack, who was gripping his wooden staff tightly. His blue eyes were wide, and staring at Pitch. The white haired boy was definitely unsure of how Pitch was taking this accusation. It was hard to tell because of how calm the Nightmare King appeared to be. Despite the sight fear that he could sense coming off of the younger spirit, it was time for him to take a step back and let Jack do his part in the plan.

"Frost, I'm leaving you in charge of Alice. Protect her while she's like this. If she wanders, then follow and if she wakes up, just put her back to sleep."

Jack looked like he was about to ask how, but Sandy gave him a bag full of dreamsand. He created an image of Jack sprinkling some on Alice and her drifting off to sleep. Jack smiled and nodded, tucking the dreamsand away in the pocket of his vest. He then hopped up onto one of the hutches, keeping an eye on Alice.

"Send a snow animal to the North Pole if there's any development."

Jack nodded and mock-saluted. He watched as Pitch faded away into the shadows and Sandy flew away in a plane made out of dreamsand. Looking back at Alice's still form he ruffled his hair and sighed. When he told North of what he had seen in Oxford, not once did he ever think that he would be asked to babysit a grown woman.


	7. Chapter 6

**Here is Chapter 6. First of all, let me apologise for taking so long. A lot of things have been going on at home (I won't bore you with details) which have kept me preoccupied until now. Next I'd like to say thank you to Scorpiofreak for being my beta-reader. Finally I'd like to thank everyone who has been reading, faving and reviewing Behind The Madness. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Rise Of The Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns**

Jack didn't know how this had happened.

He had been sitting on one of the hutches on the roof, watching Alice sleep. From what he could see, in her dreamland she was currently battling some kind of creature. The Winter spirit didn't know how to describe the creature. The only distinguishing feature he could pick out was the creepy looking doll face. He shuddered as he looked at the face. If it was creepy in dreamsand, he didn't want to know what it looked like to Alice who was battling the thing.

Suddenly and without warning, Alice picked herself up. Jack jumped and blinked owlishly at the girl in front of him. Had she woken up? He needn't have worried, her eyes were closed, and if that wasn't proof of her slumber, then the dreamsand still above her head was.

Before he could lay her back down, Alice had started walking towards the edge of the roof. Jack stared in horror and shock before starting to panic as she neared the edge. She didn't believe in him, she couldn't see him. He wouldn't be able to help her!

As the sleeping Alice was about to step off, Jack kicked himself into moving. Even if he couldn't help her, he knew that he had to try. Alice started to plummet down to the ground, blissfully unaware of what was going on. The white haired spirit immediately grabbed her around the waist, vaguely aware of the wind trying to help his vain attempt to rescue the girl.

He placed one arm under her legs, and the other was placed under her shoulders so that her head would be resting on his arm. He had a vague memory of seeing a couple getting married, and the groom had lifted the laughing bride into his arms. Fortunately, the Winter spirit had only just managed to make it look like he wasn't carrying a doll. He felt incredibly uncomfortable, and he couldn't help the blush that crossed his pale face, but this would have to do for now.

Once he had a firm grip, Jack realised a few things. The first thing he noticed was how incredibly light Alice actually was. Considering how bony she also was, he could only guess that she wasn't getting enough food at the orphanage. As he adjusted quickly so that she would be resting comfortably in his arms, he realised the second thing. Alice hadn't passed through him while he stopped her from falling to her death. She couldn't see him, but she hadn't passed through him either. Jack could only wonder what that meant.

The Winter spirit looked down towards the street to make sure no one had spotted them. He didn't know how he would be able to explain a panic caused by a floating girl to North. Luckily for him, the cobbled streets were surprisingly empty. He couldn't help the wave of relief that washed over him.

Just as he was about to return Alice to the roof, something moved in his peripheral vision. Jack turned his head to look and felt his heart quicken in what he could only describe as fear. As he gazed at the smartly dressed Doctor Bumby following the ugly hag who had known Alice from the asylum, Jack couldn't figure out whether he was more frightened or angry at the figure causing this much disharmony in London. He knew one thing for sure though; he couldn't let Alice go back with that man.

He and the sleeping Alice floated above the rooftops of London and he brought them down again down again in a little alleyway. It wasn't too far from the hag's house; he would still be able to spy on them. The main advantage lay in the fact that Alice wouldn't be seen. Of course, that was probably because he had place her down behind a couple of rubbish bins. Anyone looking in this direction or walking past the entrance to the alleyway, wouldn't even notice her small figure curled up against the stone wall. Not unless they were looking for her anyway.

Jack watched anxiously as Doctor Bumby followed the ugly, old woman into the house. He didn't have to wait long before seeing two figures appear on the roof. After looking around a little, the tall figure appeared to start yelling at the smaller, hunched one. Jack was afraid that the doctor was going to hit the woman. Bumby probably got close, but he seemed to pull himself together and before the hag could stop him, the doctor was marching out of the house in the direction of the orphanage.

Once Bumby had turned the corner, the Winter spirit let out a sigh of relief and leaned back against the wall, running his hand through his white hair as a way relieving any remaining stress. Before he could stop himself, Jack felt his icy blue eyes being drawn towards Alice's sleeping form.

The dreamsand above Alice's head showed her riding in what appeared to be some kind of giant mechanical teapot that was suspended on a wire. Her eyelids flickered slightly and she mumbled in her sleep. Jack could only presume that she hadn't been getting much sleep. The bags under her eyes were terrible and just added to the poor girl's washed out look.

Despite all this though, Jack couldn't deny that she was pretty. Of course she looked pretty terrible now, but with some proper sleep, a little makeup and a clean dress that wasn't so ragged, he was sure that Alice would be able to turn heads. He briefly wondered what it would be like to talk to her. Jack quickly got rid of the idea. No one could see him; she wouldn't be any different. Besides, his job was to protect her and that's it. He wasn't supposed to feel any kind of attachment to her.

So why did he feel like she would be the only one to ever understand him?

Jack looked up when he heard a noise near the entrance to the alley. He grabbed his staff and took aim, looking around frantically for any danger. When he detected nothing, he began to lower the aged staff. A huge clattering noise to his right caused the Winter spirit to yelp in fright and, acting on default, he aimed and shot some ice towards the source.

Once he had managed to calm his breathing, Jack inched towards the source, but instead of a dangerous enemy, he only found a very disgruntled stray dog. The scraggly black dog snarled at him when he tried to get close, before bounding off in another direction. Although he had wanted to apologise to the innocent victim of his icy powers, Jack couldn't help but grin and giggle childishly.

Biting his lip to stop any more giggles from escaping, Jack shook his head slightly before turning back towards Alice. Except, she was no longer there. Jack's eyes widened as he started to panic. She couldn't have gone far! He was right there! She probably wandered towards the other end of the alley and lay down in a dark, shadowy place so he couldn't see her. Yeah, that must be it.

As Jack neared the end of the alley, his panic came back with a vengeance. What he hadn't noticed before was that there was a small hole in the wall. Which just so happened to be big enough for a young woman to squeeze through. Jack quickly peered through it, hoping to catch a glimpse of Alice so that he could catch up with her and steer her clear of any shady characters.

To his dismay, he saw a crowd of random people. Alice would probably get trampled in a crowd that big; he was surprised he didn't notice the noise from them before. Jack unwillingly started to create frost on the ground he was kneeling on and on the brick wall. An incredibly fat man, sporting a huge boil on the end of his nose, was blocking Jack from making out any distinguishing figures. It was only when the man finally wiped his beefy hands on his apron, and moved towards his cart, that Jack began to recognise some of the people. This wasn't just any random crowd of people.

Alice had wandered straight into the heart of the Black Market.

* * *

><p>Pitch had been pacing back and forth in North's office since he arrived. He hadn't said anything to North, simply nodded. The Christmas spirit had taken this as Pitch's way of saying that the dreamsand had worked. He knew that the Nightmare King would not want to be disturbed, especially while he was pacing. North had complete confidence that Jack would play his part and the plan would be a success. One could only imagine how both spirits reacted when a tiny bird, made out of snow and taking on a bluish colour, flew in through the slightly open window, twittering loudly and urgently.<p>

North had been made aware by Sandy, that any snow animals would be from Jack and that it either meant something bad had happened, or there had been a development. Seeing a beacon, so soon after being given the important task of guarding Alice, caused the Christmas spirit to cringe and shake his head slightly. He stroked his beard to calm himself, and then he turned to look at Pitch.

The Nightmare King was glaring furiously at the bird. Obviously, Pitch hadn't been expecting it so soon, either. He couldn't believe how foolish the Winter spirit had been. He should've known better than to leave Alice in the care of Jack Frost. That spirit caused nothing but trouble and obviously couldn't be trusted to take care of a single job.

Pitch didn't give North any time to defend the boy. He had already slunk into the shadows and was on his way to London before North could even reach out and stop him.

On reaching London, Pitch was easily able to spot Jack. The boy was hovering above the many rooftops, high enough to see everything going on but still low enough for him to actually see. It was obvious that he was desperately trying to find Alice, and judging by the way he sometimes flitted about he wasn't having much luck. Tiny snowflakes occasionally drifted on the chilly wind, showing how truly upset Jack Frost appeared to be right now.

Ignoring the panicking Winter spirit, Pitch focused his energy on the important task of trying to locate Alice. The Nightmare King used the lengthening shadows of the evening to move from place to place. He curled his lip in disgust once he set eyes on the Black Market; these people were truly evil. Pitch always took pride in striking fear into the hearts of children, but this was going too far. For the first time ever he felt sorry for the poor things with blank expressions. They looked like broken dolls. They no longer felt fear; they couldn't remember any emotion, and Pitch forced himself to move on.

"Did you find her?"

A small voice sounded from behind the Nightmare King. Turning towards the sound, Pitch was greeted with the sight of a terrified Jack Frost. The boy was gripping his staff as if his very life depended on it. He took note of the drop in temperature, the way Jack was visibly shaking and the waves of fear coming off of him. Jack must've been truly scared of facing him in this situation. Jack must've spotted him and known that he would've known about Alice's disappearance.

Pitch narrowed his eyes at Jack, choosing not to answer the question. Jack could clearly see that Alice was not with him. Once Pitch turned and took off in another direction to look for the young woman, Jack practically sprinted to catch up. In his panic and fear, the Winter spirit appeared to have temporarily forgotten that he could fly. Instead he chose to dodge around the people in the street as he tried to catch up, and the lengthening shadows did nothing to aid the poor boy as the Nightmare King tried to get rid of him.

"Pitch!"

At the sound of Jack's shout of desperation, Pitch whirled round to finally face the younger spirit.

"I can't believe I actually trusted you to take care of her."

The Winter spirit's ice blue eyes widened and started to gloss over, his bottom lip trembled slightly. Jack quickly looked down, not wanting to give the Boogeyman any kind of triumph. The aged wood of his staff began to glow slightly from how hard he was gripping it. Before any actual tears could start to properly form, something made him look up. What he saw made his eyes widen even more.

While running after Pitch and trying to locate Alice, the two spirits had somehow failed to notice that they had approached a dock. A shady looking brothel called The Mangled Mermaid was nearby, with even shadier looking people hanging around outside. Sailors were starting to bring the boats in and were tying them to posts scattered around the dock. A few stray dogs were fighting over a few scraps of food that had been tossed out of the brothel. The overwhelming smell of dead fish hung in the air, leaving a bad taste in Jack's mouth and almost causing him to gag. It made him wonder how Pitch was able to cope.

None of this was what really drew his attention to the end of the little pier about ten feet to the right. Jack blocked out what Pitch was trying to say as time appeared to slow down, and he watched Alice approach the end of the pier, and the deep water below.

Something about the water unnerved and frightened Jack. He didn't know why, because he could easily freeze it over. Seeing how Alice was still in her dreamstate, Jack didn't need to be an expert to figure out what would happen if she really stepped off the edge. Something about the horrible possibility of Alice drowning kicked him into gear, and he flew past Pitch, who was still trying to yell at him, and towards the dark haired girl.

When seeing the direction Jack was going in, Pitch also started towards the pier. As Jack reached out a pale hand to drag Alice back, she fell. The water that splashed Jack instantly froze, and he shook it off quickly. He could still see her. He wouldn't have to go in too far.

Jack tried dipping his bare feet into the water, and was horrified when it froze over. He didn't want to freeze it! He kneeled on the newly formed ice and tried to reach Alice using his hands, only to be met with the same result. Pitch approached as he was desperately banging his fists against the ice.

"Out of the way, fool!"

Jack immediately floated up as Pitch conjured his jet black scythe and brought it crashing down on the ice. The sound of the ice breaking sounded remarkably similar to a broken mirror, and Jack was left wondering how no one else seemed to hear it. Large, jagged pieces of the ice started to float away, while needle thin pieces flew up into the air. One piece caught Jack on his left cheek, causing a stinging sensation, and allowing blood to slowly stream down to his chin. Once the ice shattered, Pitch dived into the water and began to look for Alice. For a moment the night remained silent. As Jack started to fear the worst, he noticed ripples in the water. Pitch's head broke the surface of the water, and the Winter spirit let out a sigh of relief once he saw the young woman with him. She was unconscious, but if the Nightmare King's smirk was anything to go by, then she would be just fine. Pitch nodded towards her and Jack took Alice into his arms and readjusted her so that she was being carried like a bride. She shivered slightly, and Jack took the small brown cape from his shoulders and covered Alice with it to try to keep her warm. It was hard to do all this while a certain spirit of nightmares was glaring daggers at him.

Jack began to fly back towards the pier when Alice's emerald green eyes suddenly opened wide. He gasped at the action and prayed that Alice wasn't actually awake yet. He was just about to grab the dreamsand that Sandy had given him when Alice started to thrash around violently. The white haired boy desperately tried to keep hold of her, but the one he was trying to help only fought back even more.

At first, Pitch was smirking and clearly enjoying what was going on. Once Alice actually managed to punch Jack in the face though, he decided that it was time to step in. Jack, who had been so surprised at the fact that she had been able to punch him, had failed to notice the danger that Alice was putting herself in once again. It was only when Alice wriggled out of his grip that he was shook out of his stupor.

Alice, however, was not going quietly. She refused to let Jack get a proper hold of her again. When she fell into the water once again, Pitch simply rolled his eyes. Using the shadows, he managed to get the attention of two nearby fishermen. They were both burly men, though their faces weren't much to look at. One was wearing a dark grey shirt and cap with a red tie. The other was balding slightly, wearing a greying white shirt with suspenders. The two idiots thought it appropriate to try and fish Alice out of the water, which ultimately turned out to work in the end. Before Jack could get involved in any way, Pitch grabbed his arm and pulled him down.

"There's nothing you could do. She was starting to wake up. We'll catch up with her in a little while. I'll be sticking with you from now on."

Turning his gaze back towards the three mortals, Jack couldn't help but feel helpless. None of this would've happened if he had looked after Alice properly in the first place. He felt like he had let everyone down, especially Alice. He shook the hair out of his eyes. There wasn't time for a pity party. Alice was waking up and he had to send her to sleep again. Both spirits turned back towards the three mortals when they heard the fishermen speak.

"Caught me very own river nymph."

"Saints be praised! He works in mysterious ways. Got any plans for her?"

**That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review! :) **

**xshattered-reflectionx**


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